


Pack

by NaturalDisaster_Goddess



Series: Dog Fight [2]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Dogs, Linked Universe, LinkedUniverse, So Many Dogs, exactly 42 dogs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 00:07:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18981139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NaturalDisaster_Goddess/pseuds/NaturalDisaster_Goddess
Summary: Dogs have always been the best friends.





	Pack

His first venture into consciousness is brief, and marked only by the gentle rocking motions of being carried and the sounds of yips and barks interspersed with growling and screaming. With this he finds that being awake is far overrated and goes right back to sleep.

* * *

 

The next time he wakes he stays awake. He is laid out by the fire; tight bandages wrapped around his leg and ribs. The crackling fire and the armored fingers slipping through his fur are the most peaceful things about the scene to which he wakes. Warriors is in the middle of an irritated game of tug of war with a black and brown shepherd over his scarf. Legend is reading a book with a large rottweiler leaning over his shoulder, and, unless Twilight’s mistaken, Legend’s lips are moving slightly as he quietly reads the words aloud to the dog. Wind is keeping careful vigil over Twilight; absentmindedly stroking the small, brown and white, pit bull puppy in his lap. Four is doing some post battle maintenance on his weapons and appears to have already trained a border collie to predict and fetch whatever tools he needs. Hyrule appears to be attempting to set up the cooking utensils, but a white bull terrier continues to thwart him every time. Sky is anxiously carving away at a lumps of wood, but the worried frown on his face just can’t stay in place as a yellow lab chases after the shavings.

And Wild… appears to be amassing an army. Where the others have one, or two, he thinks as a shaggy newfoundland joins the rottweiler in listening to Legend’s story, Wild is surrounded by at least thirty dogs. He glides between the dogs switching seamlessly from a two-legged walk to a four-legged lope and back whenever necessary seeking to calm the shyer, more nervous dogs.

Another dog, a very familiar one, is the first to notice that Twilight’s awake. The brown and black mutt from the ring whines pitifully when he sees Twilight’s eyes. He approaches cautiously with his tail held between his legs and whimpering mournfully. When Twilight makes no aggressive moves the other dog approaches more, and licks the cuts around his snout from the muzzle apologetically. Twilight lets his eyes slip shut in acceptance of the action, and the apology it represented.

The action also brought another’s attention to him; Wind leaned over excitedly, careful not to jostle the snoozing puppy in his arms.

“You’re awake!” he cries.

Time’s fingers falter at the cry, and then he’s leaning over to look at Twilight’s face. Across the camp; Warriors’ scarf slips from his fingers, Legend trails off in the middle of a sentence, Four drops the dagger he’s cleaning, Hyrule drops the cluster of spoons he’s holding, Sky’s hand halts mid-stroke, and Wild, with a small doberman pup clutched in his arms, is already darting over.

Twilight makes to roll over and get to his feet, but no less than four hands are on any piece of uninjured flesh they can reach to keep him from getting up instantly.

“Don’t you even think about it.” Sky scolds.

Twilight groans but goes limp again regardless; the hands loosen their grip on him but don’t let go. Wild is kneeling right beside his head and Twilight presses his forehead against Wild’s knee. One of Wild’s hands slips away from cradling the doberman pup to stroke Twilight’s head, carefully avoiding the stinging abrasions left from the muzzle straps.

His ears folded back and his maw parted in a large yawn that tugs painfully on the cuts on his snout.

“Go back to sleep Twilight.” Hyrule orders.

The shepherd trots cautiously up to Warriors with the knight’s scarf dangling from his mouth. Warriors huffs out a chuckle and offers the shepherd a stick in attempt to negotiate the return of his scarf.

Safe and warm surrounded by his friends; Twilight allows his eyes to slip shut again.

* * *

 

He wakes again in the middle of the night. The others are sleeping around him; except, apparently, for Wild. Twilight huffs out a laugh as he sees Wild pinned beneath a massive pile of dogs.

Wild hears his laughter and looks at him seriously, “I can die happy now.”

Twilight laughs harder and then slowly, painfully, drags himself closer to the cuddle pile of dogs; placing himself right by Wild and stretching his neck to nose at Wild’s hand. Wild reaches down to stroke Twilight’s head, and before he knows it he’s been lulled back to sleep.

* * *

 

The chaos is back the next morning.

No one quite knows what they’re going to do with all of the dogs they’d rescued, and for obvious reasons they were hesitant to trust just anyone with them.

“Why don’t we just keep them.” Wild proposes off-handedly.

“Wild, we do not have the time or resources to take care of 42 dogs.” Time retorts.

“We’ve been managing fine so far.” Wind says.

“It’s been a day.” Time points out.

“Well we did better in one day than the people we got them from did in however many years.” Wind retorts.

“You are setting the bar really low for us.” Legend states from where he sits with the rottweiler and newfoundland he’s been reading to the previous day.

“Well he’s not wrong.” Warriors had managed to reclaim his scarf and was occupying his shepherd by throwing a long stick. This turned out to not be the best plan as several other dogs had become interested and were all chasing each other in a desperate race to be the one to bring the stick back.

“Maybe not, but that is till a pretty weak argument.” Four replies, leaning against his border collie.

“Like you don’t want to keep your new border collie assistant.” Warriors grits as he wrestles the stick away from a cane corso.

“Leave Ezla alone!” Four calls back slinging an arm over the dog’s neck.

“You already named her?” Time questions.

“...Yes.”

Time sighs, “Anybody else already name one of the dogs that we can’t keep?”

Slowly, everyone’s hand went up.

“I named all of them.” Wild says.

Time groans, dropping his face into his hands. That is until a white samoyed presses into his side comfortingly.. His hand drops automatically to the dog’s head as he looks down at her. The dog looks up at him with her tongue lolling out and he can’t help but smile slightly.

“Alright,” he relents, “you all can have one dog.”

A series of celebratory cheers ring through the clearing; each of the Links hugging their dog of choice.

Legend looks at Time seriously, hugging the newfoundland and rottweiler to his sides, “Two dogs.”

“One dog.” Time replies.

Legend hugs the dogs even closer, “Two dogs.”

The two engage in a brief staring contest before Time finally relents, “Fine, two dogs.”

* * *

 

Three days later the group of nine is trekking through the forest with a massive pack of dogs trotting at their heels. Each Link had one or two of their own walking directly beside them.

Twilight had finally healed enough to return to his human form, and like the others had a dog stepping in time with him. Midnight; the mid-sized black and brown mutt.

“Where even are we planning to take them all?” Sky calls.

Several of them chuckle nervously; cause really, they have no idea.

**Author's Note:**

> Every single one of those dogs found a happy home.  
> In case anyone's curious these are the dogs each of the boys got and their name  
> Time: samoyed-Navis  
> Twilight: mutt-Midnight  
> Warriors: german shepherd-Lan  
> Sky: yellow lab-Finn  
> Wind: pit bull-Aris  
> Legend: newfoundland-Ravin, and rottweiler-Ralph  
> Hyrule: bull terrier-Prince  
> Four: border collie-Ezla  
> Wild: doberman-Mia


End file.
